Following a huge grassroots effort to get a victory garden reestablished on the White House lawn, Michelle Obama made it official last week: an organic kitchen garden is now in progress near the fountain on the South Lawn. As we had hoped, Mrs. Obama is helping to elevate awareness of healthy, locally and sustainably grown food. So, does that mean that sustainable food revolution is about to sweep the country?
During World War II, victory gardens became a necessity as the government rationed foods like sugar, cheese and meats and labor and transportation shortages affected the ability to harvest and transport fruits and vegetables to markets. The government asked citizens to shoulder some of the burden of food production, and what resulted was a nation where nearly every yard supplied fresh produce. But, it didn’t last. Once the war was over, we went back to our lawns.
The importance of sustainable food can’t be overstated. Our food system is a mess. The vast majority of the foods we consume are grown thousands of miles away from our homes with liberal use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, processed heavily and then shipped to our local supermarkets. It’s hard to even tell where the foods we eat come from anymore. We’re so far removed from the source of our food, it’s really kind of disturbing. Children hardly even realize that food comes from nature, as opposed to the store down the street.
Food recalls are becoming more and more commonplace as farms and processing centers cut corners and fail to properly oversee operations. Contamination is widespread and has reached stomach-turning heights in recent years. Most of what’s found in grocery stores is loaded with empty calories, preservatives, sodium and fat. Conventional farming practices are robbing our soil and our food of nutrients, polluting our waterways and causing vast oxygen-deprived ‘dead zones’ in our oceans.
People are beginning to realize the value of authentic food – thanks in large part to a receptive First Lady and skyrocketing interest in the green, eco-friendly lifestyle – but making the dream of a sustainable food revolution into reality on a nationwide scale is a gargantuan task, and one that may still take many years to be fully realized.
Advocates of conventional agriculture – including, naturally, the powerful National Corn Growers Association – are pushing back, arguing that organic farming can’t provide enough food because yields tend to be lower.
From The New York Times:
“We think there’s a place for organic, but don’t think we can feed ourselves and the world with organic,” says Rick Tolman, chief executive of the National Corn Growers Association. “It’s not as productive, more labor-intensive and tends to be more expensive.”
Although some people argue that there are hidden costs to cheap food, from environmental damage caused by factory farms and fertilizer runoff to the health costs associated with eating highly processed, calorie-laden food, the fact remains that commercially produced food is relatively inexpensive.
As the Obama administration took over in January, many advocates of organic, sustainable food had hoped to see an ally appointed as secretary of agriculture and were angry at the appointment of Tom Vilsack, who has been called a Monsanto shill. Obama’s choice to put Vilsack in charge of the USDA was seen as a devastating blow to the movement.
From Counterpunch:
“Vilsack’s nomination sends the message that dangerous, untested, unlabeled genetically engineered crops will be the norm in the Obama Administration,” said Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of Organic Consumers Association. “Our nation’s future depends on crafting a forward-thinking strategy to promote organic and sustainable food and farming, and address the related crises of climate change, diminishing energy supplies, deteriorating public health, and economic depression.”
Vilsack has taken to fighting that perception, turning a patch of pavement outside his headquarters into a “people’s garden” and claiming sustainable food as one of his main priorities. Among his stated goals are improving the quality of children’s school lunches, helping small farms develop regional distribution networks and overhauling agriculture and food policy to place an emphasis on nutrition and fighting climate change.
Sustainable food activists are wary, and take Vilsack’s statements with a grain of salt given his past, but they’re still hopeful that sweeping changes in the way things are done could push local and sustainable food into the mainstream.
Still, even the most ardent of sustainable food advocates warn that the movement isn’t ready for its closeup. Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and supporter of diversified, regional food networks, told The New York Times “The movement is not ready for prime time. It’s not like we have an infrastructure with legislation ready to go.”
But, momentum is building all the same, and across the country, thousands of people are turning back to that World War II-era tradition of growing their own food. This time, there’s even more at stake – so we’ve got to make sustainable food a reality. Luckily, our fortunes have changed dramatically since the Bush administration left office with its collective tail between its legs. We’ve got friends in powerful places – even Oprah is speaking out for sustainable food.
So, what can you do to help? For starters, consider following Michelle Obama’s example and plant a kitchen garden, start some potted herbs and veggies on your balcony or even take over an abandoned lot. Learn more about growing your own food no matter where you live with our guide to urban gardening, and get more info about the sustainable food movement at SustainableTable.org.
Link [The New York Times] + [CounterPunch]
Photo credit: Slow Food Nation & The Huffington Post
